Just stop! This is my message for those posting comments blaming Sandra Birchmore for other sexual encounters besides Matthew Farwell. Someone commented on a Facebook post recently about Sandra Birchmore: “She’s no angel! What was done to her was wrong, but she knew what she was doing as she got older.” That statement and others like it reflect a profound misunderstanding of grooming and childhood sexual exploitation. As I explained on @JusticeServedTV Sandra's sexual encounters with other men cannot be separated from the grooming that began when she was just 12 years old. Grooming is not simply about obtaining sex from a child. It is about systematically dismantling that child's understanding of love, trust, boundaries, and relationships. Farwell exploited Sandra's vulnerabilities and her admiration for police officers. Through years of relentless manipulation, he conditioned her to associate sexual availability with affection, acceptance, and approval. This is the reason groomers like Farwell can continue to sexually exploit victims into adulthood and leave them vulnerable to exploitation by others. That conditioning did not disappear when Sandra turned 18. A birthday does not erase years of psychological manipulation. What some characterize as promiscuity, actually reflects the lasting consequences of childhood sexual exploitation. Sandra's adult behavior must be understood in the context of what was done to her as a child. As a Juvenile Court judge for more than two decades, I saw firsthand how grooming and sexual trauma can distort a young person's understanding of relationships and personal boundaries. Stop judging and blaming Sandra for behaviors shaped by years of grooming that distorted her understanding of personal boundaries and left her vulnerable to continued sexual exploitation. Just stop.

Remember this face. This is Sandra Birchmore in 2014, a young teenager in the Stoughton Police Explorers program. By then, under Massachusetts law, Matthew Farwell had already raped her in April 2013 when she was 15. His own text messages confirmed this fact. This is the child Farwell’s defense attorney told jurors had an “affair” with him. Grooming is about trust, manipulation, power and control. Sandra believed Farwell loved her. He exploited that belief to get what he wanted. As the trial unfolds and we debate evidence, witnesses and rulings, remember this face. It is not the face of a girl having an "affair." It is the face of a sexually exploited child. It's the face of thousands of children who are sexually exploited every day.